Feds discover 4 unborn babies in Michigan warehouse used to sell body parts

Federal agents have reportedly found four unborn babies in a Michigan warehouse that was owned by a businessman who sold human body parts.

Confidential photographs reviewed by Reuters show babies, which appear to be in their second trimester, submerged in a liquid that included human brain tissue.

Reuters noted that the babies' bodies were found during a December 2013 raid of a warehouse owned by businessman Arthur Rathburn, who has been accused of defrauding customers by sending them diseased body parts.

It is not known how Rathburn had acquired the deceased babies and what he intended to do with them. A trial has been set for January, but neither the indictment nor other documents made public in the case mention the babies.

U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn, who chaired a special House committee on the use of aborted fetal parts, had called for a review of the case. She reportedly recoiled when a Reuters reporter showed her photographs that were taken by officials involved in the raid.

Blackburn said that the discovery of the fetuses in Rathburn's warehouse raises questions about the practices of body brokers, who take cadavers donated to science and sell them for parts, typically for use in medical research and education.

Other photos from inside Rathburn's warehouse showed rotting human heads, some floating face up in a plastic cooler. More than 1,000 body parts were reportedly seized from the warehouse.

"The actions depicted in these photos are an insult to human dignity," said U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Goodlatte further stated that if individuals "violate federal laws and traffic in body parts of unborn children for monetary gain," they should be "held accountable."

Buying and selling of cadavers and other body parts — with the exception of organs used in transplants — is legal in the U.S., but trading in fetal tissue is considered as a crime.

Public health authorities in most states are not required to regularly inspect body broker facilities, making it more difficult to determine whether the brokers who deal in adult donors are acquiring and profiting from fetuses.

As part of Reuters' investigation of the body trade industry, a reporter was able to buy two human heads and a cervical spine from Restore Life USA, which is based in Blackburn's home state of Tennessee. The transaction was completed after just a few emails, at a cost of $900 plus shipping. Blackburn said that it was "sickening" how easily Reuters had purchased the parts from Restore Life.

After being informed about Blackburn's concerns, Restore Life owner James Byrd stated that he has invited the lawmaker to tour his facility and to review its policy and procedures.